Whittier

I'm Whittier 

Another blue sky day! Truly amazing weather, they say!

Fabulous overnight road  stop beside a a very small lake that was actually just a slow flowing, widening of an emerald green glacier fed river. A sandy beach made it look alluring but the water could have sustained floating ice!

We were just a few miles from the 3 mile tunnel through a mountain range that separates Whittier from Anchorage, etc 

The town of Whittier was originally built as a "secret" backup harbour to Seward, in case of an attack from Japan. The military built the access tunnel. 

Now the town handles a bit of freight, but survives as one of the main ports for Princess Cruise lines. An enormous 10 story cruise ship was in port while we were there. Whittier is an unusual tourist town. Over 95% of the town lives in one enormous high rise that was built to house 1,000 military personnel during the war. It was built during the "Cold War"--a highly valued ice free port that could handle ships of any size.  Then it was  decommissioned by Washington after only 6 years of use and the city bought it to house its complete population!  Another military building of similar size was built nearby and now sits as an enormous empty relic.  

We took a cruise from Whittier for almost 4 hours out to see the incredible glaciers nearby, some of which"flow" right down to the ocean. Turquoise, calm ocean waters and majestic white peaks in all directions made it spectacular. To top it off, it was warm enough to watch from the ship deck, in the sea breezes. 

Whittier is in a unique climate situation. On the opposite side of the tunnel (to the west) the area receives similar snow fall to the Okanagan and about 50 inches of rain (less than Vancouver). 

On the east side of the tunnel, Whittier receives over 30 ft of snow (100 ft in the mountains) and over 20 FEET of rainfall. Having a 22 degree day with a blue sky like today is a rare occurrence !

PICS OF GLACIER TO OCEAN

PIC OF CUNNY ICEBERG

Since there is nowhere to stay in Whittier, we headed north of Anchorage where even at 8:00 at night the temperature was still 22.degrees C. and sunny!  Writing this at 11pm with no lights on!  Still very light outside.